Proportion of women growing in leading state jobs
Call for further measures to improve gender balance
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The proportion of women in the highest-ranking state positions is growing. Nevertheless, only one third of leading management positions in state institutions are held by women.
While middle management positions already have a fairly high proportion of women, the top spots at universities and other institutions of higher education, and in courts is only about 20 per cent.
A working group headed by Tiina Astola, Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Justice, submitted its report to Minister of Administrative and Municipal Affairs Mari Kiviniemi (Centre) on Thursday.
The report calls for measures to promote women’s career advancement in the recruitment phase, as well as training, and the establishment of career paths.
The report also calls for a reassessment of the concept of “managerial experience” already at the stage when vacancies are advertised.
“A business card does not have to read ‘manager’ or ‘chief’. It is possible to acquire management skills in connection with leading a demanding project”, Astola points out.
The working group also recommends clarifying the recruitment phase in such a way that the applicant’s potential for development as a manager is taken into consideration, instead of requiring lengthy experience in management from the outset. Approximately equal numbers of men and women should be taken into management training, the report says. In addition, management training specifically aimed at women should also be developed.
Astola emphasises the possibilities for variety. The same person can serve alternately as a manager or as an expert in different life situations. “One must be able to step aside and come back. Variety needs to exist without any road being cut off.”
Astola herself started working a shorter work week when her children were young. “It was a big, but necessary decision for me, even though I felt that I had betrayed my work community.”
Astola hopes that alternation of management responsibility and other tasks could be adaptable to cases such as that of Sari Sarkomaa, a government minister who recently resigned her post to devote more time to her family.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 16.1.2009 - TODAY |
 Proportion of women growing in leading state jobs |
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